The Crazy Chronicles of Nerds in Training
by HorseTechie
Summary: This will be a set of fun one-shot stories featuring our favorite team of heroes from SanFransokyo. Starting after the end of the movie, these will highlight various training sessions of the team during their downtime. Many ideas will about things like sparring sessions, chopstick battles, spiders, etc!
1. It begins!

_**Disclaimers – The characters and story therein from Big Hero 6 are property of Disney/Marvel's movie. I claim no ownership to the characters and story.**_

 _ **AN: Thus begins my random one-shot training series. These will just be parody-type stories highlighting their training - or anything weird and wacky in between, including similarities with other shows. These stories start a week or so after the end of the movie, and will proceed from there. Your ideas for future one-shots are also welcome!**_

* * *

 **Hajime!**

It was 10 in the morning on that Tuesday, the team's first official meeting together in Hiro's garage to start their physical training. All the work tables, crates, and an old couch were pushed over to the walls to make a wider space on the floor. The garage door was also closed, just so that passer-bys didn't glance in to see how ridiculous they looked.

However, a little more work was required to finish their training area. The group of five stared at a large square cardboard box that also had just arrived as well.

"What was this again?" Fred prompted.

"Puzzle mats," said Hiro, grabbing his box knife from a nearby workbench. "For a dojo mat."

Once the cardboard was cut away, he lifted up a large, inch thick square sheet of black rubberized foam than was blue on one side, and almost as big as him.

"Grab one, then put them together here," the younger Hamada showed them as he dropped the piece to the floor. Then he grabbed another and lined it up with the tongue and groove pieces so it would interlock together.

That task was done quickly since everyone worked together to lay the squares out and stomped them into place. Of course, this was after Wasabi insisted they take their shoes off in order to keep the new mats clean.

"Nice," Fred mused, relishing the cushiony feel of the foam rubber under his feet.

"When was the last time you cleaned your garage, little bro?" Wasabi had to ask, after noticing more cobwebs, dust and dirt on the floor, otherwise causing them to track dusty footprints on the mats, not to mention the questionable stack of broken wood and furniture in one corner.

"I'm supposed to...?" Hiro looked a little surprised.

"You clean your garage?" Fred asked Wasabi as well.

"Yes, A garage is every man's sanctuary of his accomplishments. Of course you have to keep it clean! " Wasabi frowned in disapproval.

"Alright, nerds. Let's do this." GoGo sighed impatiently, clapping her hands.

Since they had the most experience, Wasabi and GoGo took the honors to plan out the outline of the first few classes. Wasabi already had many hours of working with a trainer for weights, cross-fit training, and swordsmanship, so he was glad to offer his ideas. While it was expected that GoGo was a triathlete, it did come as a surprise when she told them she was also Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, and fan of kick-boxing.

The other three in the team were complete featherweights in comparison, with only the required P.E. class from school being the limit of the college students' physical activities.

"What ever it is, just be gentle!" Fred joked, somewhat nervously. "We're just a bunch of 98 pound wimps here!"

"All the more reason you need to get your butt kicked!" GoGo shook a finger at him.

Honey Lemon just smiled modestly. At least she looked the part, as she was sported her stylish lyrica skirt and biker short combo with an equally flattering pink layered tank top and sport bra. Honey clearly had too much fun shopping for new workout clothes, and similar attire to compliment her super suit.

"Okay, here's the plan for this month. During these sessions, we will be doing a lot of strength, cardio, and teamwork building exercises. Some cross-fit, maybe parkour," Wasabi explained, before looking to GoGo for her behalf, "As well as some kickboxing, sparring, and other self-defense tactics."

Of course, Fred was wincing slightly as he imagined the rigors of these activities. He nudged Honey Lemon with a pathetically hopeful look. "So... What's likelihood of you whipping up a strength inducing serum for us?"

GoGo facepalmed.

"Hey, my man," wasabi reminded them, with a little more encouragement. "If I can get to looking like this, you can too. Though, it will mean following a good diet, constant daily training practices, drinking 64 ounces of water a day... But it can be done if you want it!"

"Quoth the man who looks like the Hulk," Fred decided to make a joke about Wasabi's moss green, long sleeved compression shirt that he wore today.

"But, we can still give it our best. You'll never know if you don't try!" Hiro countered, forcing a smile even though he wanted to agree with Fred. Wasabi was practically the only strongman on the team who already had great fighting skills. The only thing Wasabi really needed his super suit for was protection.

"Okay, everyone," GoGo clapped. "Let's line up and get started." They began a series of stretching and warm-ups, which then led into an impromptu demonstration of how to do a burpee.

"Wait, what?" Honey Lemon wanted more clarification.

"You're going from a squat to a push-up, basically," Wasabi tried to explain the physical element of the maneuver.

"I understand that, but why is it called 'burpy'?" She furrowed her brow.

"Is it going to make us barfy?" Fred chortled.

"I hope not," Hiro frowned, along with Wasabi. "But actually, it was named after the guy who created them, Royal Burpee."

"That's his name?" Fred rose his eyebrow in disbelief, trying to not laugh.

"Seriously! He was this physiologist from the 1930's."

"Of course you would know that."

"Just like I how I also know that the heart is like the only muscle in the body that never gets tired because it has 30% more mitochondria than skeletal muscle." Hiro said as he put a hand on his hip.

"Baymax research," Honey Lemon just whispered to Fred. The young robotics engineer was also still in the process of rebuilding the healthcare robot.

"Okay, let's do the 20 reps already," Wasabi groaned, apparently getting tired of these frequent moments of idle chit-chat.

That was done, but not without some labored comments towards the end about knees starting to hurt.

"Next round, jumping jack punch!" GoGo announced her technique. She gestured to Wasabi to face her so they could demonstrate. Only because this was not something they could just describe.

"Okay, like we rehearsed... right fist first," she whispered to the big guy.

They did a jumping jack while facing each other, and then punched at each other once with their right fists. Since this was for exercise, they weren't actually hitting each other though. That maneuver was followed with another jumping jack, and then a punch with their left hand. The next set moved to a right-side front snap kick, then a left-side front snap. As they did this, they counted the punch loudly, and then they got faster until they reached ten.

"Got it?" Gogo turned to face them, hardly winded at all.

"Yes, Ma'am!" Hiro humored her with that kind of response.

"Omigod, that's hilarious! Where do you guys find this stuff?" Honey finally admitted openly about just how funny that looked.

"We have our sources," Wasabi simply stated.

"Okay, we're going to pair off." GoGo instructed. "Honey, with Fred. I'm with you, Hiro... and then after a rep of ten, we switch partners. Odd one out gets a breather."

The one thing Hiro was not prepared for was how close GoGo's fist got to his face, like about a couple inches away. She clearly had to be teasing him too, like how a cat liked to play with a mouse before eating it.

"Flinched again," she whispered after noticing Hiro's eyes blink.

"Good reflexes?" he countered, throwing a fist that didn't seem nearly as menacing in comparison to her speed and control. Hiro found himself more and more distracted by Fred and Honey cracking up over their silliness as well.

"What are we learning from this anyway?" Honey finally asked, catching her breath.

"Teamwork," Wasabi answered. "We all need more of that."

"That's all?," Fred chuckled, "Because what we did could have also just confused _and_ amused our opponent… _royally."_

Hiro found himself trying to not laugh after catching Fred's point. "And then kick em when they're buckled over laughing?"

"This is why you are all bunch of hopeless nerds," GoGo rolled her eyes.

"Nerds with super style!" Fred did a jumping jack, disco dancing move, further rubbing it in.

* * *

 _ **AN: This is a short one that had to be done, yes. Being a Tae Kwon Do nerd myself, there were exercises the Masters had us do in class from time to time that were so funny. All an effort to keep exercise fun, I guess. A lot of my friends are also into cross fit,so I will also admit I was a little curious why that one exercise was called a burpee. But after I found out, this short happened. ;p**_

 _ **Also, I had seen this Avengers clip from Samsung phones, were they chose this guy who looked a LOT like Wasabi to be the Hulk. The only difference is that Wasabi gets freaked out if order is loss. Hiro is much like Tony/Ironman, and GoGo has a lot of Captain America tendancies, and throws her disks in the same way. Honey Lemon could be like Natasha/Black Widow. HL uses chemballs instead of guns. Fred is harder to match, but I'm guessing he could be like Spiderman, (except Fred like to think himself as being part Gila monster).**_

 ** _Thank you for reading, everyo_ ne! **


	2. Karate Kid

_**AN: Hello! Wow… work be busy these couple of weeks... and my attentions are pulled thin!**_

 _ **Now this particular story is a little more serious. It was an idea I had for some time, and just wanted to write it out. It also is a little AU, as I see GoGo as also knowing a lot of self-defense skills from TaeKwonDo, Judo, and other street fighting experiences from her days as a street car racer. Saw her as the teacher, and Hiro as the student... until he caught up!**_

* * *

 **"Karate Kid"**

GoGo coasted her older mag lev bicycle toward the back of the Lucky Cat Cafe. It had also started to thunder from another storm moving in, and she was relieved to have made it there before the raindrops.

The speedster also was very early that morning for the team's training session, but she knew Hiro should already be up. It seemed like the garage was where he spent his time when he was home. She hopped off and wheeled her bike to the garage door, then rapped on it loudly.

GoGo heard something drop inside, an obscene expletive, then silence. The knocking must have startled the younger Hamada, but a few more seconds passed and nothing else happened. She popped her gum loudly as she waited.

 _Was he trying to hide, or something?_

"Hey, raise the door already," she knocked again. Some raindrops began to hit the pavement behind her. A few more seconds passed before the garage door finally lifted up.

"Hi. Um, you're early," the boy genius was standing in the middle of the mat-covered floor, with the pull cord for the garage door swinging above his head. He also wore a soldering visor that was flipped up on his head.

"Yeah," she walked in. "Are you busy?"

Hiro hesitated before answering. "Oh, um... no. No," he took the visor off and set it on the work bench.

"Good," GoGo wheeled her bike inside and rested it against an open spot in the corner by the garage door. She couldn't help but notice the music he had playing this time. "Green Day? Classic."

He gave her a small smile. "You like them too?"

"They're one of my favs," she also took off her helmet, then stuck her wad of gum on top of it. But as much as she wanted to talk music, there wasn't much time for that now. "Wasabi's not able to make it in this morning, so I need to go over some self defense techniques with you."

"Such as..?" Hiro inquisitively curled up one side of his mouth revealing his gap tooth grimace.

"Sparring blocks and how to fall, like from foot sweeps and throws. I want to make sure you know how to do them first." The Black Belt student explained as she settling her confident gaze on his increasingly unsteady one.

"Okay," he swept a hand through his long hair. Yep, the boy was nervous, and looking like a trapped animal again. Hiro also glanced once at the open garage door, but didn't make an effort to close it even though the rain poured down. She decided to also leave the door open, just so the others could quickly get out of the rain.

"So... where do we start?"

"First, let's go over the blocking basics, to warm up." GoGo walked to the middle of the mat and gestured for him to come over.

"Punch me."

"Wh-what?"

"Punch me," she repeated, more loudly.

He looked at her, dubious. "I thought you were going to show me what to do first."

"I am," GoGo leveled with him. Good thing she decided to come early to practice, because these moments of hesitation would have been a little awkward while they were trying to show the others. "But.. _you_ need to punch at _me_ first."

"Right," the Japanese American faced her and raised his fists in front of him like a boxer. But instead of throwing a punch immediately, he hesitated again. "I'm not really hitting you, am I?" He straightened up, lowering his fists.

GoGo sighed, finding his apprehension to be curious. The same boy who wanted to take a man down in a fit of rage a couple weeks ago could not bring himself to punch her now.

"Chill Hiro, you're not going to hurt me. That's the point of this!"

"Oka- yes.. ma'am," He seemed to remember his respects now. She tried to not let her amusement show at that.

"Punch!"

Hiro did, finally. Her arm swiftly met with his, moving his fist out of the way with her face block.

"Again!"

He punched with his left, somewhere between her face and her chest, and GoGo blocked it just as quickly with a lateral body block.

"Like that, keep it up!" She encouraged him to continue punching. The next few blocks were similar, but then she decided to slip in a different twist.

After blocking the last punch with a knife hand body block, the Korean grabbed Hiro's wrist securely. Then she turned around to step left in order to lift his arm over her head. In one shift motion, GoGo pulled on his arm to bring a surprised Hiro down to the ground.

While still holding on to his hand, she punched to his face, but again stopping only a couple inches above. "Gotcha," she smirked.

"Hah.. Hah. Funny," Hiro groaned. As she was still holding his arm, GoGo lifted him back up to his feet.

"That was just one kind of take down. I'll show you how to do more later," She explained quickly. "But now, it's your turn."

"Uh.. Yes, ma'am,"

GoGo did her best to not smirk at that response again, and debated on telling him to relax with it. Whether or not he was also mocking her, seeing him on edge like this did amuse her to a degree.

At that, she stepped back into a ready stance, and then punched at Hiro's face with a sharp, loud yell.

The boy blocked it, barely. He had pushed her arm high over his head, as he cringed down a bit. She only gave him a moment to recollect before punching with her left. Hiro ended up quickly stepping back out of the way all together instead of blocking.

"Hey!"

"Hey, what?" GoGo looked at him, trying to not look too concerned from that reaction. Did he get beat up a lot at highschool too? However, instead of possibly further bruising his ego with questions about bullies, she decided to address his seasoned fighting knowledge instead. "I thought you knew karate, Mr. Botfighter."

"I do, it's just a little different.. actually doing it... myself."

"You never trained?"

"Not for long... Tadashi was the Black Belt," he replied, sheepishly.

"How come you didn't go to class with him?" She had to ask, because this was news to her.

Naturally, he gave her that 'do you have to know?' look. "I .. I got bored with learning all the basic stuff, so I stopped. I really wanted to learn how to spin kick and use weapons instead."

"That's it?" She couldn't help but laugh now. Apparently, he thought his smarts could get him ahead in everything, like he did in school. "I mean, I get what you're saying, but with martial arts... it doesn't work that way. You HAVE to put in the time, if you want to be good at the advanced skills."

"Yeah... That's what 'Dashi told me." Hiro slumped his shoulders.

Sensing the dip in his mood at that point, GoGo presented a new challenge. "So... I need you to be able to block my punches, without running away. If you can do that, then I'll show you how to throw me to the floor."

"Ooh, really?" He practically exaggerated his excitement that time to mock her.

GoGo responded to that with a loud yell and a fist to his face.

The younger Hamada did better using his face block technique to avoid an undesirable knuckle sandwich. And, to get back, he countered with a jab back in her direction.

Gritting her teeth, she dodged his counterpunch in one motion, only to throw another fist at Hiro. He acted in time with a mid-level body block that pushed her arm outside.

 _Now you're getting it. What changed?_

She did a quick double punch, the first punch posing as a fake-out. Hiro winced a little from the hard contact of their arms when he blocked, then she changed tempo by swinging wide at him to test his next reaction.

 _Duck,_ she mouthed the word, and his eyes only looked to the left. He dipped low, even though he held up his right hand higher as if preparing to block too.

"You got it," the speed queen approved.

His smile was genuine this time.

"And, sometimes it helps to use peripheral vision when you look here, to guess your opponent's next move," she explained while pointing to her chest area. Only a beat passed before Hiro seemed to blush a little as another smile tugged at his lips. She suddenly realized why, then narrowed her eyes in disapproval.

" _Focus_ , nerd boy!" She swatted at him again.

"I'm notta nerd!" He was quick to protest, barely managing to dodge her slap.

"Please, you are the very _definition_ of one," the speedster wagged her finger at him. "And I didn't tell you to look at my boobs either."

"What? No..." Hiro turned away, rubbing his face and neck, probably before he just started laughing, or blushing, or something evermore awkward to bother her. That boy was such a hopeless mess, and he wasn't even a full-blown teenager yet.

GoGo glanced at the clock, sighed, then called out to him. "Hey, are we gonna finish this, or are you going to need a cold shower?" She actually pointed to the rain outside to emphasize her last statement. Except she was not smiling, on the outside.

But on the inside, the mechanical engineer wished she could tell him just how much she liked him. It just bothered her that Hiro was so young, and that he should have the chance to date someone his own age. However, she never heard him talk about any other friends. His subtle desire for her friendship had a way of tugging at her heart.

Naturally, Hiro just stared at her in disbelief, clearly defined embarrassed disbelief, from her last statement. "N-no. It's nothing like that! I'm okay!"

"Okay then," GoGo gestured to the mat again. "Stand here in front of me. I'll show you how to fall backwards from a foot sweep."

"Why am I falling first?" He was questioning her earlier statement, which left him with the impression he would get to do the throwing.

 _Because you're clumsy_ , she thought to herself, before giving him the real reason.

"Cause if you don't know how to fall, knowing how to attack would be useless." GoGo explained carefully. "If you get your wind knocked out, end up with a broken arm, or a concussion, you're done. Fight's over."

"Well, yeah." He shrugged.

"So, basic falling 101 - _ushiro ukemi_. Follow after me," she stood next to him.

"Cross your feet at the ankle. Bend your knees and squat a little, and tuck your chin down on your chest. Then when you go down, curl up like a ball, and fall on your butt." At that, she bumped into him in such away so that he would fall backwards.

"Yaa!" Hiro wasn't exactly very graceful that time, his legs flailing as one hand reached out to the mat as he fell. "No fair pushing!"

"Sorry," GoGo smiled that time, just to further tease him. She held out her hand to help Hiro up.

"Sure," he muttered, then shot her look before shoving her playfully in return.

Accepting that jest, GoGo grabbed his arms and fell to perform her backward rolling judo technique. She pulled the surprised teen with her as she rolled on to her back, and then practically lifted him over herself with a foot on his waist to slow the momentum. Instead of a hard throw to the ground, she neatly dropped the boy to the mat beside her, where she was laying.

"Wow..." Hiro gasped, lying on his back for a moment.

"What did I tell you?" She sat up to look at him. "Gotta know how to fall before you can fight."

"No kidding," he rose up to his feet, dusting his clothes off a little.

"That maneuver I just did... that's where you could do the front roll, _mae ukemi,_ to counter my takedown."

"Okay... how would I do that?"

"Tuck up in a ball and roll through on your shoulder. It's more about keeping the momentum going- essentially taking the attacker's energy and using it against them."

Being an engineer too, that explanation made sense and he nodded.

"Stand like this, with one foot ahead of the other, and your back foot is sideways so you can push off. Then your leading left hand in front and the other hand behind it. When you roll, drop in your left shoulder, tuck in your chin to ball up, and roll. You want to roll through on your shoulder, not your head. I'll go first," the mechanical engineer rolled through, being sure to slap the floor with her hand. Then she rose up to her feet in one fluid motion. "Like this way. Just be sure to slap your hand to the ground. It helps disperse the impact of the fall."

"That does?" The boy looked impressed, nonetheless.

"Try it," she gestured to the mat.

Hiro bent down as instructed and rolled though, which was way better than his backwards fall. But not as smooth about getting back up on his feet.

"You're able to throw Wasabi over?" Hiro finally asked.

"Yah." She crossed her arms. "Size doesn't matter."

"Right, of course," he swept aside the bangs from his eyes.

"We'll do the backwards fall again," GoGo motioned, but not without checking the time again. Even though she didn't mind working personally with Hiro on these judo techniques, she didn't relish the idea of Honey Lemon and Fred seeing them rolling around on the mat together. She'll be posting those pictures online in a heartbeat. "I'll show you the foot sweep... like this."

GoGo faced him, taking one of his hands, "Grab my shirt collar."

As soon as he did, gingerly, she knifehand blocked his arm, then grabbed his upper arm. At the same time, GoGo gently pushed her palm under his chin and swept her foot at his ankle, causing him to easily fall backwards. "Ball up, slap the floor." She reminded him, all the while also holding onto his right arm.

"Wow... You didn't tell me about the palm strike." Hiro gasped, looking up at her from the floor.

"I did it carefully," GoGo pulled him back up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just caught me off-guard."

"You're doing good though, Hiro." She put an arm around his shoulders for a moment. "We'll work more on this after the others get here, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." He nodded, then looked back her, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth again. "Will I get to throw you later?"

"Dream on, nerd!" She scoffed, crossing her arms.

"What..! But you said-" their discussion was cut off when the other two walked in.

"Hi guys!" Honey Lemon walked in, closing her large pink umbrella.

"Whoa… thought it would never stop raining cats and frogs," Fred remarked, shaking off some of the water drops from his hair.

"Were you waiting long?" Honey asked either on of them. She already knew that Wasabi also wasn't going to be there also.

"No, not really." Gogo shook her head, acting as thought nothing was amiss.

"Bus was on time at least."

"Fortunately!"

"Well,okay... let's do this." Gogo nodded to Hiro and the rest.

* * *

 _ **AN: Thank you for reading! Yes, GoGo is a real tease here. But she'll give him the chance later, when he gets better at it. I promise! ;D**_

 _ **They also don't study one particular style right now either. It's a mix of anything that is deemed practical to help them in real crime fighting scenarios.**_

 _ **And so I will end this story with that one song by Rachel Platten that totally makes me think of this chapter:**_

 _This is my fight song_  
 _Take back my life song_  
 _Prove I'm alright song_  
 _My power's turned on_  
 _Starting right now I'll be strong_  
 _I'll play my fight song_  
 _And I don't really care if nobody else believes_  
 _'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me!_


	3. Chopstick Challenge!

_**AN: This started out just on the chopstick challenge, but then I had to add that extra twist to make it something more than that. Poor Wasabi!**_

 _ **This one takes place well before my other fic, Indomitable Force. It drops a lot of hints... but don't worry about the Wasabi/GoGo pairing. It was doomed from the start! ;p**_

 _ **Also, my fascination with the**_ _ **Kung Fu Panda movies had nothing to do with this. ;D**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

 _ **Hashi Chousen!**_

It was the team's third successful training session, and they all decided to do something different for lunch instead the usual routine on campus. Plus the news that Baymax 2.0 was nearly finished was reason enough to celebrate. So it was decided to drive over to one of their old dining hangouts, Benitōs. Honey Lemon explained that this restaurant was where all of them used to meet for their science club last year. Somehow, it had been over three months since they were last there. The accident did have a big role as to why, but the bigger reason was that it was when Wasabi had stopped working there. He had been one of their top sushi chefs, but after an unfavorable change in staff behind the sushi bar, he could no longer stand the overzealous, disorganized people he had to work with. Regardless, Wasabi secretly hoped that enough time had passed so that it wouldn't be awkward for him to be there again.

Once at the restaurant, the five extracted themselves from Wasabi's new compact yet roomy minivan. Being as he was, the applied physics student had to get a vehicle that was just like his old one (which unfortunately had to be totaled), right down to the same trim and interior colors. With it also being an import, it wasn't easy to do. So it totally irked him that the third gear didn't shift as smoothly due to a small defect that wasn't under warranty and would be too expensive to fix. No one else seemed to care though, much to his chagrin.

"This still has to be the best fusion restaurant around! No one else makes Asian tacos like Benitōs," Honey Lemon raved to them. It was true, they tried to find another restaurant that could compete, but they couldn't.

"No doubt," Hiro nodded, grabbing the door to hold it open for the others.

Wasabi followed behind the rest, waiving Hiro to go on. The big guy nodded to the hostess, who he didn't recognize with much relief. The wait for a table was fortunately not long, and again, Wasabi thanked his lucky stars that they got a waitress he didn't know either.

His spirits were lifted a little more when GoGo took her place next to him at the table this time, and not next to the younger Hamada. The way those two seemed to be flirting with each other lately was really starting to bother him. First of all, there was that age gap, but did the kid even realize GoGo was already seeing him? Sure, her explanation was that she was just being a big sister for Hiro, which was fine. But did Hiro know that? The way he was acting around GoGo the last couple of weeks, well, it was not reassuring. However, with everything else that had gone down, Wasabi just didn't have the heart to tell him. Yet.

Once the group was settled at their table, Honey Lemon could not help but capture the moment. "For new beginnings!" She beamed, holding up her phone to take a groupie shot of everyone with her.

"Exactamundo!" Fred agreed.

Yes, everything was different this semester, no doubt about it. Staying positive was the best thing they could do for each other now.

"Y'know, this place was also where the nicknames were born," Fred nodded, "Represent!"

"How could I forget?" Wasabi sighed, taking one of the menus as they were passed around.

"I did notice they were all food based," Hiro smiled crookedly, thumbing through the pages of the menu. He and Fred were sitting on the other side of the table, across from Wasabi and the girls.

"Almost everyone," GoGo thought out loud.

"I did agree that Katsudon would be a good name for me, but it never stuck." Fred leaned forward, pointing with his finger to stress that fact.

"Probably because we already knew you as Fredzilla?" Honey Lemon told him.

"Same thing happened to Tadashi," Fred mused, rubbing his chin. "I dubbed him as Hashi-san, since he was sooo good with chopsticks."

Hiro revealed an unexpected smile at that, "No kidding!"

The others took this positive reaction as the okay to stay on that topic. While it was sometimes awkward when the conversation drifted toward the late elder Hamada, they were also learning that sometimes it was better to talk about Tadashi if it was a friendly subject. The positive memories had a way of keeping Hiro grounded.

"That was when he said he was more used to 'Dashi, which also happened to be Japanese for soup stock." Honey Lemon continued.

"Is that where.. 'Hashi Dashi' came from?" Hiro wondered at that point. "Just a random sticky note I saw stuck in one of his Baymax journals."

Honey Lemon blushed slightly as she nodded yes.

"Chopstick soup?" GoGo nearly whispered to her, as Honey was to her left, all while trying to not laugh.

"It's... I'll explain later," Honey quickly whispered back.

GoGo raised an eyebrow, finally picking up on her drift.

Oblivious to the girls' conversation, Fred continued to pry about Hiro's own chopstick skills.

"Seriously, I was eating with chopsticks as soon as I could hold a fork." Hiro boasted about his unspoken talent.

"Five years old?"

"Four."

"Nooo," Fred was in denial.

"My Japanese grandparents were visiting then, and they taught me," Hiro closed his menu, then fidgeted at the corners again.

"We gotta do this then." Fred brought his hand down with a thud on the table, in true WWF style. " _Chopstiiick Shooowdown_!"

"Nuh-uh, Fred," GoGo disagreed, in a jesting way. "No one is allowed to take away my fame!"

Fred raised his eyebrow, giving her that 'give me a break' look. "He's gotta claim back what rightfully belongs to the Hamada legacy!"

"I am?" Hiro nervously glanced between the two, recognizing the new challenge.

"You are."

"Okay, I am." He picked up the paired bamboo chopsticks, pulled the paper off, and split them in two. "Let's do this.

"We pair off," GoGo started, looking from Hiro, then Wasabi. "I'll start with Wasabi."

That somehow left the young Japanese American to chose between the other two. Honey Lemon frowned, giving him the impression that she didn't want to this time. Apparently this must be hitting too close to home for her, even though it wasn't bothering Hiro. "Someone needs to referee!" Honey Lemon was quick to hold her phone up.

"You and me then," Fred rose up both of his eyebrows a few times as he looked at Hiro. The look the kid gave in return was priceless.

"You can eat with chopsticks?" Hiro half whispered to him in disbelief.

"More than you know," he winked, twirling one chopstick smoothly around his fingers. Fred didn't even bother looking at the menu for his food of choice. "We're doing this with a bowl of fruit loops, in milk."

"Seriously?" Hiro couldn't possibly expect this to get any more comical than it was, but it did.

"Buddy, I'm doing you a favor! Tadashi would change it up to rice krispies, in milk!" The mascot flexed his chopsticks as he spoke to the younger Hamada.

"These are also the preliminaries," Honey looked to Hiro.

GoGo was pleasantly surprised to see more Korean style dishes on the menu now.

 _Such was the irony_ , Wasabi thought. Of course, the restaurant had finally taken him up on his suggestion to add more, after he left. _Losers._

The waitress returned for their orders, but she had to wait while Wasabi and GoGo volleyed ideas on what they wanted to eat. That was his one weakness for this type of thing. His germaphobia made it hard for him to willingly share food with others. Eating out of the same dish was the unspoken rule of the challenge. Fortunately, he was used to sharing more than food with GoGo now. The thought of her saliva contaminating his food did not turn his stomach as much as say, that of Fred's or Hiro's.

GoGo boldly suggested _ojingeo-jeot_ , fermented raw squid in a spicy garlic sauce. Everyone frowned at that, for some reason.

"Wimps." The speedster then pointed to _mulhoe_ (mul-ho-ye), raw fish noodle soup. After she explained that it was basically like a Korean ceviche, Wasabi finally agreed.

But those were just the appetizers. Hiro ordered a big bowel of their top ramen noodle soup because he just knew he would be runner up. All that Honey requested a couple orders of tacos. Then a couple orders of hot wings were added for everyone too, just in case. Wasabi also requested his favorite seafood bento box too, already knowing that his round may not go well.

Once the waitress returned with their first course, it was on. Fred had switched places with Honey Lemon so he could be across the table from Hiro, for a better angle.

"This has to be the biggest bowl of cereal I have seen yet," was all that Hiro could say.

"You sure you can handle this?" GoGo teased Hiro.

"What makes you think I won't?" He sat up a little more, readying his chopsticks.

"That I'm gonna beat you boys like a drum," she shifted her serious gaze from Hiro to Wasabi.

"Game on," Wasabi countered.

"Okay! On my count," Honey Lemon started the count. "Three, two, one... Go!"

It was practically an eating contest as well, for the person to eat all the food first was the winner. The emphasis was on 'eating', because the food that was dropped on the table and/or the floor went against their favor.

Hiro was trying to scoop the half-moistened loops of cereal on top of his chopsticks, with very little success. He had paused to notice Fred's unorthodox technique of quickly threading many of the loops on his sticks before sliding them into his mouth.

Wasabi and GoGo began slurping furiously to eat their bowl of soupy, tangy, shreds of lettuce, cucumber, thinly sliced fish, and noodles in a red, spicy sauce. Simply a matter of who could eat fastest for those two, with only a few slick sparring tricks thrown in.

Hiro had resorted to spearing what he could while playing keep away with Fred with the loops still floating in the milk. Their sticks clashed with each other a few times, which escalated to scraping the cereal off each other's sticks, and at one point Hiro finally caused Fred to drop one.

"Who-hoa! Chopstick down!" Fred groaned when it hit the floor. But unlike anyone else who would opt for a new set, Fred picked up the stick and barely wiped it off.

"Aw, hell no," the mascot's action had caused Wasabi to stare in disgust for a few precious seconds too many.

The young genius did not wait for Fred though, and made quick work of what he could get without the redhead's interference. Hiro was aware of Fred's time saving 'trick', but he wasn't going to let that be of a concern if he didn't let the mascot get to what was left.

Five slightly soggy loops remained floating in the milk, and the two boys hovered for a long second before snapping after them like angry cranes.

Fred was quicker this time to thwart Hiro's attempts to skewer the cereal again. And again, Hiro set his jaw in determination to think of ways around that.

"Ooh, the first team is finished. Let's give it up for GoGo!" Honey Lemon crooned, taking her victory picture. Then a second picture followed of GoGo sticking her tongue out at a sulking Wasabi.

After Fred got him into another chopstick lock, the young genius twisted his chopsticks around Fred's so quickly, he caused the mascot's chopstick to go flying again.

"Nooo! Choppie!" Fred dramatically dove after his chopstick again.

Hiro quickly snapped up the last couple of loops floating on the milk.

"All right guys!" Honey Lemon cheered. "Hiro is the other winner!"

"Booyah!" Fred cheered also.

"Awesomesauce!" Wasabi nodded, and then decidedly slid a new set of chopsticks still in the wrapper over to Fred. "Please."

"And replace my trusty battle-weary Chopinators?" Fred held his old chopsticks to his chest.

"I insist, man," the mascot's mishap was Wasabi's reason for losing to GoGo, but he wasn't going to make a deal about that.

Hiro looked smug, leaning one elbow on the table as he looked to Fred. "Goes to show you can't tangle with a Hamada and come out unscathed!"

"Oh really?" GoGo pressed Hiro. They were the next round up, something that also secretly bothered Wasabi. It was something they wanted, he could tell.

"Absolutely," the younger Hamada's eyes confidently shifted from Fred's to GoGo's. Then the click of Honey Lemon's phone was heard as she captured that moment. He wasn't bluffing either, already having shown so far how much Tadashi had taught him.

The rest of their food had arrived a few long minutes afterwards. A big bowl of hot, steaming ramen noodles with various fish cake, egg slices, and ornate vegetables on top was set in front of Hiro. The rest of the dishes were also set around the table for the others too.

GoGo looked at the noodles, and the chicken wings, then at Hiro in obvious disbelief. "There is no way you are going to eat all of that yourself, nerd boy," she taunted him.

"Like you are?" Hiro shot back. Then he did the unexpected. The younger Hamada reached past the nearly empty Sriacha bottle for the super-hot habanero sauce, and squirted a good amount in a tight spiral on top of the ramen noodle soup.

Wasabi nearly choked on his tea in shock, coughing now. That would have been an instant forfeit if he happened to be the one against the boy genius. While the physics student could do spicy, there was no way he would've endured that blistering, tongue-searing torture.

"I also like it _spicy_ ," he smiled cunningly, already noticing the withering reactions from Wasabi and Fred. Yep, he had learned a lot from Tadashi as far as chopstick challenges went.

GoGo's gaze remained dead serious as she tapped the tips of her chopsticks against the table to level them again. "So do I."

Honey Lemon made the call to begin the next round between the two. Both were engineers, and thus also very nimble with their hands. This duel was at most going to be anything but boring. "Ready, steady... and.. _go_!"

The speedster and the young genius started off noisily slurping the noodles, even though their eyes were intent on each other in anticipation for anything slick.

Then Hiro picked up a fish cake ball. Before he could bring it to his mouth, she snatched it in a flash and ate it. Furrowing his brow, Hiro picked up the half of a hardboiled egg on his side of the bowl, just a couple inches from his mouth, only to have it suddenly disappear again.

"Hey!" Hiro reacted quicker this time, reaching out to snap at the egg before she got it to her mouth. It fell back into the bowl instead, so he pulled the bowl closer to himself to slurp a spicy mouthful of noodle before GoGo pulled the bowl back with her chopsticks.

Or at least, that was her intent. Hiro had stopped the Korean by holding the bowl on the other side with his chopsticks. To make him let go, she swiped at his chopstick inside the bowl. The bowl moved back toward GoGo before he was able to hold it tight again. She jabbed at his index finger and chopstick this time, and he released completely because that hurt.

But to retaliate, he promptly reached out to lock his chopsticks on hers. GoGo pulled back, otherwise also dropping the noodles she held.

The two parried with their chopsticks like mini bo-staff for a few more seconds until Hiro had one knocked loose. He barely caught it before it fell to the floor.

"Hah!" The speedster taunted him. She freely slurped down more of the spicy noodles while he gathered his sticks.

Hiro pulled the bowl back to the middle while eating a big mouthful of vegetable and noodle at the same time. The spicy was making his nose run, but GoGo's eyes were watering from the heat as she sniffled in between bites.

Then they paused for a second when the noodles that GoGo slurped were connected to the ones that Hiro was eating. Of course, Honey Lemon just had to snap a picture of that.

There was no way in hell they were going to let a Lady and the Tramp moment happen, however. GoGo blocked Honey's phone with her free hand while reaching up to grab at the connected noodles with her chopstick to break it. That was when Hiro decided to bite the noodles hanging from his mouth instead, leaving her with that part so he could go back to eating more noodles.

As she slurped the noodle ends, somehow a drop of spicy broth from the tail ends snapped up and flew into her eye. She immediately winced, squeezing the eye shut from the burn.

"Curse you, _Hiro Ryan Hamada_!" GoGo bellowed as she tried to blink it out.

Hiro paused for a moment, but he said nothing. This was another chance to get ahead. The younger Hamada had gathered the remaining noodles to his side of the bowl, and yes, he was doing his very best to not laugh at her plight too. How was that his fault anyway?

"She's gonna kill you, y'know," Fred leaned close to whisper.

"Not ready to die yet," he said with a sniffle through a mouthful of noodle.

GoGo was not going to let that be a setback, and so with one eye squinted she returned with a vengeance. "This is not over yet!"

She had grabbed the bowl with her chopsticks on one side and spun it around so his side with the noodles was now facing her.

There remaining in the bowl was also one last fish cake ball. GoGo snatched it while Hiro was trying to reclaim the noodles. Without even looking at her this time, he snapped at it in such a way that it flew upwards.

At that moment, everyone had their eyes on it. Was it going to be a goner? Or...

Hiro positioned himself to catch it with his mouth. He was just about to taste its spicy goodness when GoGo swiped it from him.

"Hey!" He grabbed it back from her, but GoGo smacked his chopstick hand to make it fly again.

She caught the fishcake ball smoothly with her chopsticks, and was about to bring it to her mouth. But the boy genius intercepted again.

He held the fishcake tightly in his chopsticks, taunting her now. She missed grabbing it, as Hiro kept it a moving target. Despite her effort to stop him, which practically involved getting his nose pinched, he still managed to pop the fishcake ball into his mouth.

 _She let him do that_ , Wasabi shook his head.

That pretty much wrapped up their battle, leaving Hiro as the victor. "That was just amazing! I don't know why I just didn't video tape it!" Honey Lemon beamed.

"You learned well, young grasshopper!" Fred held out his fist to Hiro for a fist-bump.

"Not bad, not bad at all," was all GoGo said. She had to carefully wipe her eyes from the tearing, but she was still probably going to have to go to the bathroom to check her eyeliner. Yup, Hiro was right about not being unscathed too. Like Tadashi, Hiro was not afraid to push the limits, and that left Wasabi feeling a little inadequate in comparison.

Hiro just sniffled again, as smug as can be.

Then Fred snapped his fingers as an idea came to mind. "Hey, what's the word for 'spicy' in Japanese?"

"Uhm..." Hiro paused, looking to the ceiling for a moment. "Karai?"

Fred wrinkled his nose. "No, that was the name of Shredder's daughter."

The others just gave Fred an odd look. Hiro, on the other hand, had facepalmed as he did understand now as to where this was going.

"What about peppers? Any Japanese names for that?" Fred asked.

"Eh.. _Shishito_ , which are those little, green, peppers." Wasabi mentioned. They used to be an appetizer on the menu here. "Or _Sansho_ , for pepper-spice."

"Oh… Sansho, yeeeeah," Fred snapped his fingers, then looked to Hiro. "He is totally a _'Sansho'_!"

"Yes. Yes, I am," Hiro laughed.

"And that's your official welcome to the team, little man," Wasabi held up his hand for a high five.

"I doubt that nick's gonna stick very long though," GoGo decided to be frank about it.

"At least we have the alias if we need it." Fred crossed his arms, nodding to Hiro.

* * *

 _ **AN: Another chapter down, and prolly full of typos since I was rushing through the edits on this. I go back and forth… posting a story here, then posting a chapter in Indomitable Force.**_

 _ **Oh hey… some reviews! Thankyou!**_

 _ **gblack7 – I honestly do not know why I don't get reviews. It's prolly because I don't have a fan-following on FFnet? ^^; That, or because I haven't written enough about how 'hot' Tadashi is? Yeah.. that must be it. Whatevers… ;p**_

 _ **Come to think of it, Hiro Ryan also sounds like Herobrine... (eyeshift) yes, my son plays a lot of Minecraft...**_

 _ **Extra kudos if you catch the Ninja Turtle reference. And the vague Phineas and Ferb ones too. Also, a nod goes out to my buddy, RGZArcher, for the couple of references I borrowed from his Heroes Rising fic (ie the part about how Wasabi used to at Benitōs, and GoGo doubting Hiro's ability to eat big).**_

 _ **Thanks for reading! :D**_


	4. Kung Fu Spider!

**Kumo**!

"So the difference between a tornado kick and the turn-behind roundhouse is which foot you're kicking with. You still step back, pivoting on the left foot," Gogo explained to the other three teammates as she demonstrated the more advanced kick herself first. "Except during the turn, lift the right foot up for leverage, hop, and.. _kick_!"

Fred nodded, seriously analyzing the difference in technique that time as he watched Gogo spin through so effortlessly. While his own overall athletic ability wasn't anything to write home about, his acrobatic talent, on the other hand, made up for that. It surprised the sassy speedster in subtle ways, and it amused him greatly knowing how much that continued to bother her. He credited the springs in his super suit for helping him with that at least. But this was Tae Kwon Do Tuesday in Hiro's garage, which he liked, even though it was only that when Gogo was teaching. Today, she was, and the mascot was thrilled to be working on his leet kickboxing skills again.

Honey Lemon had problems about getting dizzy after too many spinning type kicks, however, and Hiro simply struggled with not being coordinated enough yet. Wasabi, like Gogo, already had that technique down. Unfortunately, he had something come up with one of his assignments again, and he was going to be late. Schoolwork before superhero work seemed to be the big guy's motto of late.

"Booyaakisha!" Fred leapt dramatically through the air, pleased to finally get more height into his tornado kick.

"Show off," Hiro crossed his arms with a huff. There was something the young genius couldn't get yet about keeping the spinning motion going smoothly enough to transition into the flying kick without faltering, or loosing his balance. Simple physics, really, but as Gogo told him… he just needed way more practice.

"Okay, you two," Gogo nodded to Hiro and Fred, "Practice more with the targets. Freddie, keep showing him how to do it. Honey, I'll work with you some more on this."

"Sure thing," Fred turned to look for the padded targets with handles. The hopeless fanboy could only dream about ever being paired with Gogo. He knew though, that Hiro would not be partnered with Honey Lemon for self-defense training yet. The crazy height difference between her and the small noodle prevented that from happening.

"Great, not sure which to be more worried about… your stink-fu or your spinjutsu," Hiro teased him, albeit while laughing nervously. Fred's feet also happened to smell particularly bad that morning, so anytime he kicked them up, the following smell that came after was the real knock-out.

"Then do you wanna go fi—" Fred had stopped mid sentence when he had noticed that a huge, black spider had jumped from the target handle onto his hand. His next instinct was to get away, screaming and shaking his arm violently as he did so. "Eeeyaaaah!"

"What the..?" Hiro remarked after seeing Fred jump back a great distance and cower against a work bench. Needless to say, the other two girls were just as concerned.

"Hairy spi-spider! There," the quivering mascot pointed to where the menacing black beast sat next to the dropped target on the mat.

"Oh my…" Honey gaped, once she saw it. She dared to take a step closer to look. "Looks like a Salticidae.. Phidippus audax."

"Great," Gogo sighed, also keeping a careful distance from it. "Hey, Chopstick Boy, get it out of here."

"Um… what?"

"Go get it!"

"With chopsticks..? No!" Hiro made a face of extreme disapproval, then stepped up to face her. "Why can't _you_ kill it!"

"No."

With her hands on her hips, Gogo glanced sidelong at the spider, then back at Hiro. The two of them ended up staring at each other for a couple long seconds before someone broke the silent standoff.

"I double dog _dare_ you," she spoke the words slowly and carefully to him.

The younger Hamada twisted up his mouth and clenched his fists in response to this slightly unfair challenge. With a groan, he accepted. The teen turned away to look for a set of disposable wooden chopsticks in one of the shelves above his work bench in the back. Because, yes, Fred knew for any of them, once a dare had been placed, it had to be met. Not doing so would automatically compromise ones ego, and no one wants to be thought of as a weenie! Well, himself excluded for the time being.

"Yeah, show that spider what you're made of!" Fred composed himself enough to cheer Hiro on. Cautiously, he shadowed behind Hiro to see what the team leader would do. This was a first for them to contend spiders. The team already tried their hand at trying to catch flies with chopsticks… but with no success yet. GoGo came close, with a fat one that was a little sluggish from the cold. Wasabi finally concluded that getting the only wing after the rest of it got away didn't really count.

Hiro knelt down, balancing on the balls of his feet in case he needed to move fast, and with chopsticks poised, he paused to look at the 8-legged creature. The jumping spider turned to face the little nerd, raising up its front two longest legs as if to accept the challenge.

"Ugh. Why can't I just squish it?" Hiro suddenly straightened up to step on the offending arachnid.

"Whoa, hey!" Honey grabbed Hiro to pull him off balance, also giving him a start in the process.

"What did he do to deserve death?" Honey Lemon reasoned with their leader.

"He almost bit me!" Fred cringed in protest, trying to justify Hiro's better idea. As cool as it was for Peter Parker to become Spiderman from a spider bite, the fanboy wasn't as willing to try that himself. He also set the propane torch back down as well, with a sigh. "I guess we can't kill it with fire either."

GoGo rolled her eyes, muttering something under her breath.

"Can I put my super suit—"

"Oh poop!" Fred shouted as he pointed to where the spider wasn't anymore. "Where'd it go?"

The group was on edge again as they frantically looked around for the scary hairy harbinger.

"There!" Hiro called out as he pointed to the floor. He crouched down low to the quarter-sized arachnid trailing along the edge of the matt. With Hiro hovering over, it stopped and turned back toward him to watch with its many shiny, black, eyes.

"I got you now," he knelt down on one elbow to steady himself and poised his chopsticks with the other. The spider tracked his every motion, watching just as closely. After somehow gauging the chopsticks coming toward it, the fuzzy arachnid lowered itself and then leapt onto the chopsticks. That completely shocked the teen.

"Aaaaa shhi-" Hiro scrambled backwards and right into Gogo, causing both of them to fall to the matt.

"It jumped! Where?"

"And now it's on you!" Fred gasped. Once Hiro realized the spider was really on him, sitting on his chest, it was the fastest the mascot had ever seen the two get to their feet in their desire to get away from each other. He had to try so hard in stifling his laughter about this now.

Hiro brushed himself off, otherwise looking very spooked as he studied the mat again. "Where is it?"

"Here, spee-ider," Fred called out, only to stop and stare at Hiro, really trying hard not to laugh at the irony. "He must like you."

Honey Lemon already was giggling though.

Hiro followed Fred's finger to look at his left shoulder. His eyes became very wide and he screamed again as he knocked it off.

It landed on the mat and took off in Gogo's direction. She actually had skirted out of its path, making Fred wonder even more if she was also afraid of spiders.

"Oh gosh, you guys," Honey Lemon finally composed herself to do something proactive about this. She bend down to pick up the chopsticks from the mat to give it a shot.

"What is going on?" Wasabi was standing at the entrance of the garage, very much not sure of the situation.

"Big Hero 6 versus.. the Kung Fu Spee-ider!" Fred stated rather dramatically.

The big guy just raised an eyebrow in momentary disbelief.

Honey Lemon straightened up, folding her hands behind her waist to hide the chopsticks. She just smiled and looked to the others as if nothing crazy was happening.

"You gotta petri dish, little man?" Wasabi asked Hiro. He quickly located one for the physicist.

Much to everyone's subtle surprise, Wasabi was not at all afraid of the spider. Calculating and calm, he knelt down to usher the spider into the bottom half of the dish with the lid. Then he stood up while holding up the closed container. "Salticidae. A really fascinating species of spiders. They actually pounce on their prey like a feline, rather than sitting on a web in wait for it."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Hiro muttered.

Fred just started laughing, after Wasabi left to take it back outside, only to find himself getting bowled over by Hiro.

* * *

 **AN: Yes, a little something 'scary' for the season. Ironically, I am not afraid of spiders. I actually find them to be kind of cool - especially jumping spiders! These visit my house all the time. We tried to video tape one jumping into a cup the other day, but my son was nervously dancing around too much for me to get a clear shot. He was wearing gloves and everything. Hee.**

 **Also, what happens in Crazy Chronicles, stays in Crazy Chronicles! (according to Wasabi)**

 **Again, if anyone has a fun/crazy/cool training idea you'd like to see, let me know! I'm thinking about doing a Star Wars themed one next. ;D**

 **Thank you for reading!**


	5. Team Obi-Wan!

**AN: Yes, well.. seeing how Disney also owns Star Wars, I could not resist doing this mash-up of sorts. Don't worry! No spoilers are to be found within, as I haven't even seen the new movie when I was writing this. Even though Kylo Ren's name is used, it's Anakin's personality that is referred to (if not also spoofing the Phineas and Ferb SW special). The skit for this lightsaber battle is a mixed up rehash of all Star Wars, movie and cartoon, with no chronological order (much to Wasabi's dismay).**

* * *

 **Team Obi-Wan**

" **aka Revenge of the Fanboys"**

The design was one that was begging to be refined, a challenge he had to fulfill as one of his class assignments. Because the precision-particular physicist quite clearly had the research, the technology, and the know-how to make his dream a reality. Not to mention just being a distinguished Star Wars fan.

Of course, MIT made their claim to fame earlier by inventing their first light saber. However, the photonic molecule lightsaber with its ultracold atoms had one drawback - it could not cut through matter like his plasma blades did. Frozen photons did make for a great idea as a training saber, however... if not a really expensive toy. Plasma was the exact opposite to this, as it was made from super heated electrons.

Wasabi was certain he and his team would be next to put SFIT into the history books by presenting a fully functioning light saber made up of plasma. Plasma in itself came from the energy that was released when electrons break apart from atoms. The energy created from the super-charged electrons and ions when they collide with each other was what gave plasma its intense cutting power.

The other characteristic that made a light saber unique was that it did not pass through another light saber. This step required Wasabi do to more research, and hopefully his idea in using magnetic containment fields would make that possible.

"So what's keeping your beam from going off into infinity?" Hiro asked, intently looking at the parts of the light saber on Wasabi's work table in the lab.

Ironically, that problem was solved when the quantum physicist derived the magnetic form of containment for the blade of light. "I used the idea you had from my plasma blades, like the high-output power cell to create the energy needed to generate the plasma. Then through the use of a set of focusing lenses and energy crystals, I am able to control the length of the blade and power output," he pointed to the different parts of the partially disassembled light saber handle.

"Right, right... so the plasma beam is set to extend out so far before it gets arced back by the blade's containment field? Then you have this negatively charged superconductor going around the emitter to channel the plasma back to the power cell, and completing the circuit. Sick!"

"Yes! And then this containment field also makes it so that the blades can make contact with other, but _without_ _passing_ _through_ each other," Wasabi stressed that detail. Then he pointed to another crucial part in the hilt. "Of course, I also included a power insulator to prevent any unwanted energy discharge."

"When will you demonstrate how it works?" Hiro was in complete admiration with Wasabi's project at this point.

"When it is ready."

"Yo! Wassup, B?" Fred strode over two the two in Wasabi's part of the open lab. "Whoa ho! Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes. Yes, it is." Hiro leaned an elbow on the corner with his other hand on his hip when he confirmed Fred's answer.

"Wow… and the light saber really works too?"

"It still needs to pass a few more tests," Wasabi told them. He had finished assembling the smaller parts and set them inside a case that had protective foam with holes cut into it to match the shape of the hilt and buttons. Only because he was afraid Fred would bump the table and mess up things.

"You're not going to try it out?" Fred pouted, trying to see what was in the case.

"No… it hasn't cleared my safety standards yet," Wasabi quickly closed the box and locked it.

"It's a _light_ saber! There is nothing safe about those!" Hiro couldn't help but tease them.

"Exactly. I do not want him to poke his eye out!" Wasabi pointed to Fred. Never mind that at all the other times, this was how he threatened Fred.

"At least it would be cauterized," Fred grinned, smugly.

Wasabi just facepalmed, taking in a deep breath before looking at the two again. " _Anyone_ can use an energy or fire blaster, or throw some chemicals around, but… BUT to use a formal weapon as elegant as a light saber, it requires _skill_. A mark of someone a cut _above_ the ordinary."

Hiro glanced knowingly to Fred before the fanboy stepped up to Wasabi. He put his arm around the big guy's shoulder to give him a squeeze, "All the more reason for the great Obi-Wan to teach us the way… of the Jedi."

Fred's new challenge caught the physicist off guard. Was it even possible to train the team sword fighting technique? The thought was more scary than anything. "Are you serious?"

"Absolutely!

* * *

That following day met the Nerd Herd at Fred's spacious outdoor patio, in full superhero garb. Everyone but Fred, however. He decided to don his movie replica version of a Storm Trooper outfit instead. Fred's curious choice of outfit was confirmed with their training weapons for today. Wasabi presented to the group a blue modified pool noodle that he pulled from a garbage bag, filled with other sword length noodles. Baymax stood to one side in red armor, quietly watching all of this unfold. He often did not participate in the training, as it often conflicted with his programming to fight with people. For the most part he just stood on call if anyone did happen to get injured.

"You have got to be kidding," Gogo finally balked, before the physicist could even explain.

"No, I am afraid not," Wasabi looked at his ultra-safe training weapon, then to the others, quite seriously. "It was suggested that we learn more about sword fighting—"

"With lightsabers!" Fred burst forth. He had long since removed the white Storm Trooper helmet just so he could see better. "He showed us one he had made the other day!"

"Oh, is it finally ready?" Honey Lemon asked, as she had seen Wasabi working on it in the lab earlier.

"Not yet. But first, we all need to learn the basics… for your safety," Wasabi insisted, trying to keep his patience.

Honey Lemon and Gogo only swapped glances, knowing this had to be another one of those crazy things only the boys would think up.

"Our super suits should protect us too," Hiro added.

"Okay, let's do this!" Fred rocked his neck to either side and bounced loosely in place to loosen up.

The physicist passed out the noodle swords to everyone, then asked they line up in one line across while facing him. After warm-ups and a review of basic stances, Wasabi went a variety of sword movements for them to practice. Many of these involved diagonal and side to side strokes, some thrust techniques, and a couple low sweep styles. Surprisingly, did not take long before everyone on the team looked fairly confident in their actions.

So confident, Fred set aside his noodle to grab a few of his choice light sabers from a box that he had brought out earlier. Because yes, the avid fanboy pretty much also collected every type of saber toy available. Only his most prized pieces were still left on display back in his room, in the most pristine mint condition from the day he first got them. The rest were his play things that he was willing to share… unlike Wasabi, the meanie.

"I feel so … awesome," the speed queen remarked rather sarcastically, after accepting one of Fred's better light sabers. It had the solid plastic rod that glowed green and made the humming noises.

He gave Honey Lemon one that glowed purple, much like Mace Windu's. The remaining few included a Luke's green saber, and the red Dark Side sabers.

"Whoa, you have the ones for Kylo Ren and Darth Maul?" Hiro picked up the red one with the two discharge ports at the top of the saber's hilt.

"If that's the one you want to go with, more power to ya!" Fred grinned.

What he had left for Wasabi was a less quality toy saber that collapsed down and did not light up at all. It was starting to become obvious that Fred was teasing the physicist for undermining his light saber knowledge and fan love for Star Wars.

"That's okay, man," Wasabi pulled out two of his own training light sabers from his bag. They were long, silver colored metal tubes, with clear green plexiglas at one end. Essentially, they looked like fancy bo-staff modified to become light sabers. "I prefer these anyway."

"We should split up: half of us good guys, and the other half bad guys," Wasabi also suggested.

"Definitely!" Fred agreed, "I already thought up some new names for all of us!"

* * *

"Tell me where the planetary away-inator is, _now_ , Hiro Ren!" Ahsago deactivated the magnetic field on her foot disks to drop to the ground. She held a balanced grip on her saber, ready to react to whatever motion her cloaked opponent would make.

"Never!" the young Sith master growled in response, the hood of his long cloak shrouding his face in darkness. "You can _not_ stop me now!"

"Yes, but with what army?" Nobi-Jin Wasabi countered the dark Jedi's unwillingness to cooperate. The Jedi Master had his experienced Padawan, Ahsago, and also the Princess Lemon from Alderaan to back him up.

"With these!" he gestured back toward Fred in full Storm Trooper attire. Yes, his one person was supposed to represent a whole league of Troopers. This was already discussed in the pre-framing of the skit earlier. Of course, Hiro's favorite D word was long since forbidden to be said within earshot of Baymax during any of these training sessions, for obvious reasons. The same also applied for any utterance of 'ow', or even swearing, when no one was really, truly hurt. Because the whole process of being cleared to continue really got tedious after awhile.

"Attack!" Hiro Ren bellowed with his light saber flared.

The Storm Trooper charged with his blaster gun a glow. The lasers (which were actually foam Nerf gun bullets) rained around the Jedi trio, somehow missing them. Nobi-Jin was quick to deflect the lasers that did get to close with his training saber (as it was declared unfair this time for him to use his plasma lasers).

The two Jedi women held their lightsabers ready and ran toward Hiro Ren to stop him.

He carried only one lightsaber, but he managed to move fast enough to deflect the flashing bright attacks coming at him from either direction. The young Sith also knew he couldn't last like this for long though. Someone had to go, he thought while he blocked Ahsago's parries from the left. Then with one well aimed jump kick packed with the power of the Force (which came from his polarized magnetic pulsars), Hiro was able to knock the purple saber clean out of the tall princess's hands.

"BX-2, back up the Storm Trooper with your blasters!" the Sith master quickly ordered his robot, as he turned to contend with the shorter Jedi again.

The red droid's help came too late though. Despite the Storm Trooper's valiant efforts, 'they' were no match against Nobi-Jin's leet light saber skills. Fred eventually had to sit up and reassure Baymax he really wasn't dead.

"Why are you doing this, brother?" Ahsago asked him, when she and Hiro paused to face each other. The dark Jedi continued to circle her, the scowl evident on his face.

"For so much _more_ … way more power than you could ever _imagine_!" he shot back.

"That doesn't mean it's _better_!" she yelled, repelling his fast attack. "You were chosen to bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!"

"It's all just _lies_!" Hiro Ren swung his red saber angrily at her from all angles. Ahsago was quick to block his parries, and tried to take control of the fight with a few thrust attacks of her own. He braced against her last blow, the sabers crackling loudly, just long enough for him to whisper his final tainted thought. "I don't want to loose you… the way I lost my brother!"

He kicks her hard in the chest to break them apart.

"The fear of loss is the –" the speedster reasoned with him, still pursuing after him with her saber.

"No! Shut up! Just… I'm not.." Hiro lashed out with his saber, then blasted sharply at her with his magnetic pulsars to knock the speed queen further away. The two girls decided at that point he really wasn't playing by the script anymore.

Regardless of the situation, Fred used that moment to come back as another Sith Master to support the Dark side. He now wore a black cloak over the storm trooper armor, put on a redDarth Maul mask, and gripped a glowing red light saber. "It's me and you, Nobi-Jin Wasabi!"

Honey Lemon ran up to Hiro to intervene, just to give Gogo a chance to get back to her feet. The tall blonde tried to put an arm around him, asking what happened. Buy the younger Hamada pushed her away, embarrassed for somehow getting emotional over this.

"Are you okay?" Honey whispered, still studying him. His hood was pushed back and had been without his helmet this time, so he was easier to see. The younger Hamada didn't have too many triggers, but they have learned to recognize it faster when he did begin to lose it for whatever reason.

"M'okay… just.. something suddenly hit home," Hiro looked at her and Baymax as he ran his hands though his hair nervously. He glanced to Gogo when she approached. "Um, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she punched him in the arm. "Take it easy, short-stuff …you guys wanted to do this for _fun,_ remember?"

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, Hiro… we know you're really not bad," Honey put an arm around his shoulders for a quick squeeze.

A bellowing battle cry from the other two grabbed the trio's attention again. They caught sight of red head Fred bounding off a pedestal to do a backflip before landing some distance away from the Jedi physicist. Then he (connected and) lit up the other end of his dual light saber. Darth Zilla trailed it along the paved walkway, making more sparks fly as he approached Nobi-Jin.

"Well, I think Fred and Wasabi have this taken care of now."

"They're hopeless," Gogo rolled her eyes. But despite this statement, she was surprised to see how well Fred was holding up against the experienced swordsman.

Darth Zilla spun his saber staff quickly then whirled back around to sweep low at Nobi-Jin's feet. Once the Jedi stood firm, he thrust forward. Then he completed into the turn with a double spin kick, making light contact with Darth Zilla's arm. He lost his grip from the blow, and Nobi-Jin parried in a flash to knock off one half of the dual ended saber.

"Eat this!" Darth Zilla retorted, thrusting out his free hand with palm facing toward the Jedi and fingers spread open.

Wasabi hesitated a moment to look at Fred's hand. "Is that a Force Push or a Lightening Blast?" he whispered.

"Oh… Lightening Blast!" Fred chuckled evilly.

Nobi-Jin promptly flailed in agony as the lightening coursed through him, causing the Jedi Master to also drop his saber.

"Stop that!" Ahsago ran up to save her Master from the Sith's wicked lightening attack. Just when she thought she was going to make the lethal cut, Darth Zilla spun around at the last second to block the downstroke of her light saber.

"Not so fast!" he smiled wickedly. He located his other saber and bent down to pick it up while still keeping his eyes on the shorter Jedi.

"You make me _sick_ …" Ahsago snarled, raising her glowing green saber higher.

"T'is my pleasure," Darth Zilla clicked the two ends securely together and spun a flash of red over her head. She ducked, the sparks flying from her saber when it collided with his. But from her low position, she swept at his feet to knock the taller Sith off balance.

His ungraceful position gave Ahsago the upperhand again and was about to make the killing stroke. Her arm, however, was suddenly frozen in place. An invisible force held her arms. She looked out of the corner of her eyes, fully aware of someone right behind.

"You can't," Hiro Ren was floating behind her on his hoover board, which also made him taller. He also kept her from moving her Saber with the Force (which was the magnetic pull from his gloves on her gauntlets).

"Give yourself to the Dark Side.. join me, Ahsago. We will be so powerful _together_!" He did his best to convince her in favor of his will.

"Sorry, Ren. Jedi mind tricks don't work on Jedi!" the feisty Padawan wrested her arms free, then backed away with a close watch on Hiro Ren and Darth Zilla.

Fortunately, Nobi-Jin joined her to parry a stroke that came from Darth Zilla.

"Hey boys!" Princess Lemon was at the other side of the yard and called out to the two Sith masters. She held up a blank chip for them to see. "Is this the top secret information about the Death Star that you seek?"

Darth Zilla couldn't react simply due to the fact of trying to keep Nobi-Jin from cutting his head off.

Hiro Ren took bait, however, and flew over on his hoover board. He was not alone, because Ahsago chased close behind on her disks.

"Grab the chip from the Princess, BX-2!" Hiro Ren yelled to his droid. "Don't let anyone have it."

Baymax flew over and politely asked for it from Honey Lemon, before rocketing off into the sky.

"Um, okay.." Hiro stopped to watch his robot hoover on high. "Maybe not like that."

Gogo came to a stop next to them, then stole a glance at her watch. "Also, we're running over now."

"Baymax, you can come back down." Hiro squinted back up at the sky.

"I guess that's a wrap," Wasabi concluded the same, dropping his act also.

"No, that was a riot!" Fred corrected him.

"We did good, no doubt. Our teamwork skills are getting better too," Wasabi nodded, looking at all of them.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, little man." The big guy tousled Hiro's hair with a smile.

"Now you… you're just _scary_ ," Wasabi pointed to Fred.

The fanboy just shrugged nonchalantly. "I took fencing lessons when I was in grade school."

"Kendo lessons here," Wasabi nodded.

"Good show, ol chap," Fred smiled, and then held out his fist to bump with the physicist. "Does this qualify me to try your light saber now?"

Wasabi pursed his lips in thought. "Still thinking about that."

* * *

 **AN:**

 _ **SJC-Caron: 'Hard vs Soft martial art styles'**_

 **Oh yes, this is a great idea! I also had thought of incorporating the Avatar: The Last Airbender style for a session. The bending styles are like this too, each one varying in form and technique. Thank you for your suggestions!**

 _ **SJC-Caron:**_ _ **A light-saber Kendo / Fencing match: COOL!**_

 **Exactly what I was thinking of, yes! Except Wasabi had in mind pool noodles, entirely all for safety reasons. *tsk* The others, however, still managed to have it their way before it was all said and done!**

 ** _robotwarrior16:_ At the time being, Hiro and Gogo are just friends in that brother/sister kind of way. But their romantic bonds are building as each chapter goes. *wink***

 **Alas, I'm not a die hard fan by any means though, but I know enough to get by.** **Info was obtained from Wiki pages and "How stuff works". If anything is not quite correct, my apologies!** **I also spent too much time watching light saber duels on YouTube. Instead of writing this story. My bad… My favorite was 'Revenge of the Kids' by Force Storm Ent. :D**

 **And.. apparently… I finally did see the new SW movie. It was sooo very awesome! ;D (Seriously though… no major spoilers.. yeah.)**


	6. Big Voltron 6

_**I'm back with another one! Finally… it's been a busy summer of life and working on other fanfics too. My bad. But it's true… I'm another one of those who fell for Voltron: Legendary Defenders. Cause I'm a Netflix watcher, I have kids, and this show was amazing. (Unfortunately… in the time I started this short, I also wrote 2 other Voltron stories. Whoops ;p)**_

 _ **So… let's just say these guys are nerds too, and yes, I could imagine them geeking out on stuff like this. I also realized I have not featured Honey Lemon yet (FFnet also needs to correct the fact we can only put 4 characters in the story summary tags, not more!) Here we go! Please enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Big Voltron 6**

" _If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great!" ~ Commander Holt_

Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Hiro arrived at Fred's mansion with the presumptive expectation that they were going to work more on some new team building skills. GoGo still had some work to do, unfortunately, and told them she was going to come later. They had the option to start without her if she was taking to long, but the older of their teammates decided to wait first. After all, how can effective teamwork training be achieved if one was missing?

Heathcliff led the three upstairs to Fred's room to find the preoccupied fanboy watching something on his big, wall-mounted flat screen TV. What they walked into was a giant robotic warrior, made up of five metal lions, assembling itself in the most dramatic way possible. The room also seemed to vibrate from music and explosions coming from the surround sound speakers.

"Um.. what?" Wasabi had to ask. The three of them stopped behind the curved white couch that Fred was lounging on, staring at the television.

"Hey, it's Vol—" Hiro had started, before Honey Lemon interrupted.

" _Tron_!" she finished the word, but with three times more the energy. "I _love_ this show!"

"You like Voltron?" Fred and Hiro practically asked her at the same time, totally surprised.

"Yes, of course!" she walked around the couch to sit down, somewhat next to Fred. "My younger brothers and sisters were watching it earlier. I never really seen the other versions, but this.. this one is so good! Were they all like that?"

"No, you didn't miss much," Hiro shrugged, leaning on the back of the couch. Wasabi finally sat down on the white couch also, shaking his head from this turn of events. He had busied himself with going through his duffle bag in search of something.

"This series is a lot like the first one from the eighties, except the characters are different," the redhead wanted to expand on that thought, more for Wasabi's sake. "They're kind of like Guardians of the Galaxy.. maybe Star Wars too. It's a team of soldiers, called paladins, who form Voltron to defend the universe from the Galra, an _evil_ alien race that wants to _destroy_ other civilizations!"

"Mm-kay," their resident physicist nodded, still not really getting into it. Which was ironic, considering how much he admitted to being a Star Wars fan.

Honey smiled, amused by the fact that she actually liked something that Fred did. A lot. Which was not very often. "I just _love_ the way they portrayed these characters. Shiro is one of my favorites," the bubbly chemist said fondly.

"I wonder why…" Hiro mused. This was of course due to the fact that his late brother shared a lot of qualities that the seasoned team leader from Voltron did, apart from his knowledge that she had been dating Tadashi.

Fred laughed, also catching his drift. "Well yeah! His real name sounds so similar… Ta _KA_ shi."

"It is?" Honey had not realized that much about Shiro's name yet, and suddenly felt a little nostalgic.

"Shiro's his nickname, for obvious reasons… it means 'white' in Japanese," Hiro also explained what he knew to her.

"Okay… so.. how about the more important questions? If Shiro was held captive by the Galra for god knows how long, then how come he still has that same crew cut… and not super long, bushy hair?" Fred turned to them, looking most sincere as he asked that question.

The other three just stared at Fred for a moment before Honey broke the silence with a laugh. That actually helped lightened her mood again. Of course, the discussion of grooming and hygiene was not really seen, let alone discussed on the cartoon. In fact, why Fred of all people would be concerned with that also struck her as strange.

"His robotic arm turns into a barber set?" Hiro offered his best guess.

"No, wait… this is even more portenant! How is it that all the aliens they have met speak perfect English?" Fred prompted next.

"You mean pertinent?"

"Yes, exactly!"

Wasabi audibly groaned from this absurd discussion. He stood up with his super hero suit in hand and thumbed toward the door. "I am going to get dressed."

The others nodded in acknowledgement, looking as if they wanted to also get ready. This did not stop Fred though.

"You know, there are five of us too," the redhead continued, twisting around to look over to their robotics engineer. "Hiro, good buddy… what's the likelihood of making robotic.. _dragons_ for all of us, so we can combine together as one big robotic monster to become the ultimate defender of San Fransokoyo?"

Hiro just raised an eyebrow as he thought that idea over. Honey Lemon just gave them a concerned look. That was one more thing she wanted to learn in addition to everything else.

"Yeah, like me and Wasabi could be the legs, GoGo and Honey Lemon are the arms, and then you and Baymax can be the head and the body!"

Honey began to shake her head no, slowly, hoping the others also felt the same kind of apprehension. Fortunately, Hiro finally agreed.

"Nope, we're not doing that," the young genius denied Fred's request in classic Shiro style.

At that point, there were some screams of pain coming from the television that the group thought nothing about, until Baymax inflated fully to ask who was in distress.

They had a moment of confusion until Hiro made the connection. "Um, you heard.. Lance, in this cartoon. He got zapped from a maze," he pointed to the flat screen as he explained the scenario to his nursebot.

"Oh, you are watching another television show," Baymax turned to acknowledge the cartoon. It was funny how the robot perceived things. If he could see that the sounds of distress were coming from people inside a video screen, he was not concerned because he knew they were not real and could not be treatable. However, if he was not able the see where the distressing sound came from, his response to the alarm would be the same. This got really fun if a person got scared and screamed from the scary movie that they were watching. Since Baymax could not turn the movie off, due to their sudden threats of deactivation if he did, all he could do was sit with them and offer his comfort through their self-induced bouts of fright. At that, the healthcare robot stated human behavior really made no sense.

Honey had wondered how well Baymax did perceive people on video. Cartoons were obviously not real. But for live action films, she wondered if he realized that they also were not real, even though it may be of someone who was real. Hiro hadn't really given her a clear answer on that.

The billowy white robot joined them on the couch next to Honey Lemon to see why the show had become the center of everyone's attention now.

"Ah! Yes, Baymax can be Shiro. He's _white_!" Fred clapped his hands.

"Ugh.. that's not a good reason.." Hiro frowned.

"Why am I… Shiro?" Baymax had to ask, tilting his head to one side.

"Freddie's just comparing you to fictional characters," Honey told their healthcare companion.

"I see. We are pretending again," Baymax blinked.

"Or.. how about it's because Tadashi made you," Fred was still set on figuring out who was who at the moment.

"Right…" Hiro straightened up and readjusted the backpack on his shoulder. "I'm going to get ready too."

Honey glanced at the clock, noticing that GoGo had not come in yet. The lady chemist already had her skirt and chest armor on, since it was easy to disguise it with a jacket on top. All that Fred had to do was hop into his monster suit, but he was still pretty engrossed in the show.

"I'm not as cocky, but I could be Lance…"

Honey figured she might as well play along. It was a pretty amusing thought challenge. "I really like Allura. She's so beautiful," she thought.

"Ooh.. yes, you would make a great Allura. Wasabi could be Hunk, and Keith… Hiro?" Fred put his hand to his chin in thought.

Honey pressed her lips together, also thinking about the possibly of Hiro being like Keith. They definitely had similar messy hair styles, but Pidge had a lot more in common with their young genius. GoGo, on the other hand, had her own set of qualifications. "I think GoGo would be more fitting as Keith. Both are Korean, they've been orphaned, and they got short tempers."

"Ooh, you're right! And Pidge is also a genius and goes crazy for robots and tech!" Fred agreed right away. "Yaaasss!"

"In all honesty," Honey leaned in with a low whisper, "Keith and Pidge are like the love children between Hiro and GoGo."

"Wait… really?"

Honey nodded, smiling very knowingly.

"They're that much into each other?" Fred asked, eyebrow raised.

"It's so _obvious_ now!" the blonde squeezed her hands into excited fists in front of her.

Fred nodded, starting to laugh most sinisterly, but had to refrain after seeing one of the people in question walking into the room.

"I see I haven't missed much," the speedy quick| mechanical engineer noticed everyone's laid-back attitudes. She set her helmet down, sweeping her purple streaked bangs aside.

"Are we pretending to be Voltron characters this week?" Baymax began to wonder about the purpose of their discussion regarding the cartoon characters, since a couple weeks ago it was all about Star Wars. Calling their training as pretend fighting, play acting, if not just practicing, was part of the reasoning Hiro used to help Baymax understand that they really weren't going to hurt each other. Even though it may really look like they might.

Sometimes Honey Lemon had to laugh at the irony of that. After not getting any text responses from Tadashi one night, she went up to his lab to find her ambitious boyfriend knocked out cold by his robot. She too had to be careful, or she would have been next. The sensors and other mechanisms in the initial designing stages of the healthcare robot were rough. Physically rough. Much to the older Hamada's protests, Honey insisted on staying nearby at least, when she knew he was going to run some more risky tests. All this she secretly credited to during that time with their battle with Yokai, whrn Hiro pulled Baymax healthcare chip out.

"Not this time…" Wasabi stopped behind the couch, overhearing the last part of their conversation. "The plan today was to work on some more team building drills."

"Hah! Yes!" Fred was now bouncing with joy as he pointed to the flat screen now. "This ep is all about teamwork! We should use it for some ideas."

GoGo only looked a little more confused as she exchanged glances between Fred and Wasabi, slowly chewing her gum. Nothing good could come from this.

Wasabi crossed his arms, looking at the TV screen then back to the others, grimacing. "Okay. Just… _nothing_ that involves food fights."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Zip ties?" GoGo asked again, looking over her shoulder from her crouched position. They were outside in a grassy part of the patio area, standing in an award huddle. She had one wrist connected to Fred's zip tie at his wrist, and Baymax was in the process of looping her other zip tie through the one on Honey Lemon's wrist.

They were instructed to huddle close together and then hold each others hands in the most twisted up, tangled looking way possible. For obvious reasons, this exercise was called the Human Knot.

"Uhm, yeah.. sorry," Hiro craned his neck around his crossed arms in front of his face. Of course, his response dripped with sarcasm. "There was a slight shortage on electro-magnetized wrist bands. Maybe the next time we do this I might have some made."

"I doubt that would help with our comfort level," Honey confessed, her accent a little more defined. That was a kinder way of not expressing the fact that a couple of these guys did not exactly smell shower fresh, namely Fred. He was connected to her other wrist, and was crouched down in front of her. She still stood, awkwardly bent over them though.

"Are you _sure_ this is going to work?" GoGo sighed.

"Yes—" Hiro groaned, but then Wasabi jumped in with the objective of this exercise.

"The point of this is to work on our communication and problem solving skills so we can untangle ourselves. We should be standing in a circle if we're successful."

"The food fight still sounded like more fun..." Fred added, wistfully.

"No it doesn't!" Wasabi shot that idea down again, tugging a little at his ties that connected him with GoGo.

"Let's do this," Hiro was Wasabi's other partner, and he was trying to twist around in attempt to figure out how everyone was positioned.

"You gotta step over my arms," GoGo told Honey right away.

"No, wait! Hold up," Wasabi protested, but the two women ignored him. This seemed to be part of the conflict. No one wanted to identify anyone as the leader either. "People!"

"Ugh… my wrist."

"Seriously guys, we got to think this out first!" Hiro interjected, his arms getting stretched into unnatural positions. Despite being their young leader, he did not get the same kind of respect during their training sessions like he would have when they were out in the city. That most likely was due to the way he had asked Wasabi and GoGo to set the training schedule.

Honey still wanted to readjust her position to improve her footing, but then Fred ended up being the one to lose his balance. He hit the floor and dragged the others with him.

"Fredrick Lee!"

"Whoa, sorry.." Fred tried to help Honey and GoGo up off of him, without laughing too much. "This is like playing drunken Twister, but bett— ow!"

GoGo kicked him in the shin, since her wrist was connected to his and otherwise making hard to punch him. However, making him double punch himself with her fist might have gotten more of the point across.

"It is recommended: to apologize and be more careful _before_ more of you cause injury," Baymax stated, in response to what GoGo did to Fred.

"You think?"

Honey sighed, as more bickering ensued. This was a prime example why they needed one person to take charge. If she were to use Voltron hierarchy as a comparison, Wasabi was better as one of their supporting teammates, like the leg. His fear of heights may make that difficult to be the head, figuratively speaking.

"Okay, look," Hiro was a little more determined to establish his role again. "We gotta plan our actions in advance, so that this doesn't tangle us up even worst!"

"Totally," Wasabi agreed, blowing some of his dreadlocks from his face when he looked over his shoulder to them.

"Baymax, get the blindfolds," Hiro lifted his head up, to look in his robot's direction. They had discussed using them earlier, but thought it wouldn't be necessary.

Honey guessed he changed his mind now. Baymax located the black nighttime masks and helped with slipping each one over their heads. Only Hiro and Honey Lemon were excluded from wearing one. They were the spotters, and the others had to work harder at listening to the directions given by Hiro and Honey.

"How is this supposed to be better?" GoGo griped.

"It's so we would listen more closely," Honey reminded her. She gave a quick glance to Hiro, the innocent sort that implied to not say anything, then reached to her pocket and pulled out her phone to take a quick picture. That busy hand was connected to Fred, who somehow thought nothing of her extra actions. "Sorry, my nose had an itch," she falsely apologized to throw them off.

"Okay, Gogo.. slide low under Wasabi and then turn around. That'll make it easier for Honey to step over me so Fred doesn't gave his arms crossed like that," Hiro explained next.

There were still a couple more complaints and failed attempts, but the result of that game finally made more sense when the team stood in a circle. A couple people were facing backwards, but at least they were not in an awkward tangle anymore.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Now freed from each other, and blindfolds removed, the group sat in a circle on a training mat they placed on top of the grass. This excercise was a lot like a game of Truth or Dare. To be truly connected as a team, they should not keep any secrets between them. Important ones, at least, because Wasabi decided that he really did not want to know about any other odd fetishes that Fred had.

"So… when does the dare part of this game take effect?" Fred wondered, sitting crossed-legged while leaning on his hands and elbows on his knees.

Honey Lemon sat to the left of him and Baymax sat next to her. They decided to include their marshmallow companion this time. Wasabi sat next to Baymax, then Gogo next to Wasabi, and Hiro in between her and Fred.

"It doesn't. I was just using that game as an example- which probably wasn't the best," Wasabi sighed.

"Oh, wait.. how about we 'dare' each other what 'truth' we want to hear!" the redhead offered his great solution while thrusting a finger in the air.

GoGo visibly wrinkled up her face at that suggestion.

"How about.. we start with saying one thing of our own choice for starters?" Hiro smiled modestly, making eye contact with a few of them.

"Yes, I'm with that," their biggest teammate agreed.

"Sure," Fred nodded.

"Who's going first?" Honey Lemon asked them with an encouraging tone.

As simple as that question was, it could as well had been like a dare for someone to strip down naked. Another second passed, pensive faces looking at each other, as Baymax observed, tilting his head.

"I'll go," Fred chimed in. He usually was first to go on these things anyway. But this time the fanboy kept his word in not admitting to something totally left field. "Sometimes.. I wish my parents weren't so rich and famous, so I could be with my dad more," Fred rubbed his arm, dropping his gaze to the floor. "Other times, I wish I had brothers and sisters too."

His heartfelt confession touched Honey, and she reached over to squeeze his shoulders. She came from a big family, so to imagine being an only child was something she could not easily fathom. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Hiro and Wasabi nodded also. "If it helps, you got us to keep you company," Honey added, looking at him sincerely.

Fred smiled, and then wrapped his arms around both Honey and Hiro into a big bear hug together. "That's why you guys are sooo awesome!"

"Yeah," Hiro muttered, looking rather uncomfortable.

Once released, Honey readjusted her fuchsia glasses and smoothed aside her hair before speaking. She had debated on admitting to this one, but she felt it had to be said. "I can be next."

"You might have guessed it, but I really like explosions. Big fiery ones, especially.. and one of the reasons why I love watching Myth Busters. They like to blow up their experiments too!"

The attractive blonde chemist rolled up the sleeves on her arms, showing some extensive scarring around the inside of her elbow region on both of them. Because of that, she tended to wear long sleeves. "This was from when I messed with some chemicals at home, when I was younger. Being scarred like this didn't stop me from experimenting with more explosive concoctions."

"But that night… that night.. when we were going to Wasabi's van, I still can't forget how we heard the fire alarms going off from the direction of the convention center. Then the explosion came, and.. I… wished I had gotten to seen it.." she had to stop, to take a moment to hold herself together. Her green eyes managed to connect with Hiro's dark ones before he turned his gaze to the floor. "But now— I'm so sorry, Hiro… it's all different. I feel so _horrible_ now when I think of any fiery explosion."

Unexpected tears had welled up in her eyes when she finished that thought, and they did not go unnoticed either. Baymax wrapped his arms around her, reassuring her that it was okay to cry. Honey smiled nervously, as one tear rolled down her cheek. She had wanted to be strong for them, being the most upbeat of the group, but that proved to be very difficult at times like this.

"You're so kind, Baymax," she patted him on the arm after he let her go.

The others also gave her understanding looks as well.

Hiro had glanced to a work bench, before getting up to grab a roll of his 'All-Purpose Paper'. It was a roll of toilet paper, much to Wasabi's chagrin, but Hiro and Tadashi had also liked using it as tissue, or napkins, or just wiping up little spills. And now, the younger Hamada spooled some of it around his hand and held the tissue paper out to Honey so she could dab at her tears before it made her makeup run.

"Thanks," she took it from him, while taking off her glasses.

Hiro still kneeled in front of her, his eyes looking down a little when he spoke. "I still see the explosions every time I close my eyes for too long," his voice was just loud enough for her, Fred, and Baymax to hear.

She nodded, carefully blotting her cheeks and under her eyes. She almost said 'I'm sorry' again, but she knew now from experience that he hated too much of that. "It's hard, isn't it?" Honey tried to smile in sympathy instead. Only her eyes asked him if he wanted to talk some more.

"Yeah." That was all he was going to say as the teen rose up to go back to his spot in the circle.

GoGo also watched Hiro more closely as he sat back down, also showing her concern too. But he still didn't want to say anything else. She didn't worry too much now, since she has heard from Gogo that the young genius is quite talkative around her at least. But Honey still wondered when he would open up more to her and the others.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get _that_ serious," Honey apologized again, feeling embarrassed too niw.

"You're okay," Hiro shrugged, but his fingers were fidgeting again with the end of his shoe lace. She also noticed how the young genius fidgeted like that whenever he got nervous.

"Through expressing your thoughts about unknown facts, you are able to improve your relationships with each other?" Baymax sought to understand this exercise again.

"That's the idea."

"Because when we can trust each other with secrets, we can also learn how to best communicate with each other on anything," Wasabi elaborated on his thoughts with them.

"And to connect with each other when we are in combat!" Fred said, with his extra special Voltron twist.

"My readings indicate an increase of neurotransmitter levels in those who have not had a turn yet," Bay max added.

"Because.. it is scary to talk to someone about something that could be upsetting. You don't know how they would think or feel about you," Honey decided to help answer that question. The way this robot formulated questions still amazed her that he could process that much.

"How about this: I wonder why humans enjoy eating for pleasure. How does food taste? It is vital to eat, but people want to eat what tastes desirable, instead of eating what is healthy."

Fred just smiled, laughing a little. "That's no secret that potato chips taste way better that lettuce!"

"How come you cannot fry a lettuce leaf?" Bay max continued.

"Cause… you can't?" Fred rose an eyebrow, as if suddenly starting to wonder about that too.

"Frying it may not make it healthy anymore…" Wasabi also frowned at that idea.

"It's the way human brains are… they have a craving for things that are salty and sweet, crunchy and spicy. It actually affects our moods," Honey smiled. This kind of chemical reaction is something else she liked to study. But she didn't go all out, just so they would stay on task.

"Why am I craving Taco Bell now?" Fred asked anyway.

Gogo just glared at him, "Because you aren't. Shut. Up."

Wasabi took this as his queue to go next, since it appeared that they were going around the circle now. He cleared his throat and adjusted his jaw first before speaking. "I like to knit."

"Yeah… you go, bro!" Fred winked at their physicist, pointing at him with both hands, as if to defuse from that unexpected reality.

"But since we are taking a serious approach to this, I knit in memory of my grandmama. She used to tell so many great stories, and lessons to learn from, when she knit. She was happy that I was the only one who stayed at the nursing home to listen to her," Wasabi said wistfully. Just the tone he used implied that she had passed on now.

"Oh, that was so thoughtful of you," Honey leaned forward around Baymax to smile to Wasabi. Baymax seemed to be zoned out, as his stomach light flashed quickly through more Web screens from the cellular data connection Hiro hooked him up with.

Wasabi just nodded, "It's rather cathartic too."

"You knit your own sweaters too?" Fred asked next, only because Wasabi does like to wear them.

"Most of them, yes. It does take some time to do," he shrugged.

"Wow.. can you knit one for me?" Fred wondered.

"Maybe," Wasabi furrowed his brow at that slightly unsettling thought.

Then GoGo was next, and she started with a sigh. "How is this going to make us a better team?" Her eyes looked sidelong at Wasabi. Honey Lemon saw that visual exchange between the two and wondered of their relationship was pretty much done now. She had noticed how the speedster liked to flirt with the big guy over the summer. GoGo or Wasabi never said anything to the rest of the group about their relationship, so she kept her mouth shut. But that would be something she would like to know, if there ever had been something going on.

"C'mon GoGo, it doesn't have to be something personal," Hiro turned to her, breaking his own silence.

"Speaking openly: will help to break the walls in between all of you," Baymax responded in kind, showing that he had been researching more about the topic.

"Fine..." GoGo strightened her back, making brief contact with the others. "My first name used to be Ethel, before I got it legally changed to Soomin a couple years ago."

"Ethel?" Hiro had the guts to repeat the name, just to make sure he heard it right. Yep, this was the first time any of them had heard of her original name.

"More like 'Lethal E-thel'," Fred chortled, emphasizing the E in her name so it rhymed better with lethal. "If I only known!"

"If you know what's good for you, you'll stop laughing!" GoGo shook her fist at them.

"Fred…" Honey laid a hand on his shoulder, hoping he would honor that request.

"Was that your birth name?" Hiro asked her, as a diversion.

"No," she shook her head, then sighed lightly. "I didn't know what my real name was when I was a kid. So the orphanage gave me that one."

"Did you ever find out what your real name was, GoGo?" Honey wondered.

"Only after I was adopted. My foster parents wanted to know," she quickly responded. "Soomin was my real name. Soomin Park."

"Which still sounds like 'zooming'," Fred nodded in full agreement.

"Another story for another time," GoGo decidedly ended her conversation there. "Your turn, genius."

Hiro smiled a little more nervously and then drew in a breath in thought before making his choice. From what Honey understood about him, honesty was not his strong suit. And yet, there were also many things about Hiro that Tadashi had told her earlier. She held a personal bet on which one he would tell them.

"I'm afraid of needles, and I hate hospitals," he said, rather quickly. Hiro rolled the plastic end on his shoelace between his fingertips again as he spoke, but he kept his eyes level with them. "When most people had learned that my dad was a medical doctor, they would wonder why I wasn't following in his footsteps – being as smart as I was. It's because I never felt comfortable about them."

Hiro did glance at Baymax for a moment, then nodded at him. "Baymax is the one exception to that."

The robot blinked, acknowledging Hiro. "Thank you Hiro, for not giving up on me."

Hiro had froze for some reason, staring at Baymax. "Uh… yeah, anytime buddy," he finally finished, with a modest smile.

Maybe another memory was resurfacing. Honey noticed the younger Hamada would seize up more and more lately from certain situations and expressions. Maybe it was something his brother had done. While she knew that Tadashi had created Bay max in honor of his late father, he had also expressed his hopes that Hiro would not feel intimidated by Baymax, as would many other kids not sure about doctors.

"Here's to hoping you two change the medical world for a lot of kids!" Fred decided to cheer them on.

"Yes, that's a goal to strive for," Honey also agreed. Good call, just to pick their spirits back up.

"Okay, we all shared our feelings," GoGo stretched out her legs from the cross-legged position. "Can we move on to the more actual training now?"

"Oh yes! What will it be next? I'm all for a round of blind freeze tag!" Fred chimed in.

" _Blind_ freeze tag?" Gogo countered. "Are you crazy?"

"How about Super Sayan Tag instead?" Hiro suggested, which referred to going all out parkour style all over the patio while using the super powers of their suits.

"That causes too much damage though…"

"I personally like Chemical Dodge Ball, myself," Honey Lemon added, rather nonchalantly.

"Okay, man, enough with the elementary playground games," Wasabi shook his head, only to change his tone a half beat later. "Besides, you know that elemental bender tag is the way we roll!"

"Ooh! Last Airbender or Legend of Korra style?" Fred perked up.

"Legend of Korra."

"Because I can do metal-bending," Hiro nodded, as he crossed his arms.

"I call fire!" Fred thrust a fire in the air.

"Not this time, Fred," Wasabi shook his head. "You're going to master air this time."

"Really…? Eh, okay," Fred got up to look for his kaiju suit. He was also pretty good with his spinning kicks and airborne acrobatics.

Honey smiled. Either way, these kind of training sessions have a way of testing the limits and abilities of the powers in their suits.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 **AN:**

 **So here we are once again! Originally, this chapter was going to be all on Avatar TLA/LoK type fighting… but the Voltron happened. It was the collaboration of DreamWorks and the producers of Legend of Korra that sold me. Next chapter will be more Avatar influenced. *nods***

 **So... some old reviews then... ^^;**

 _SJC-Caron: Big Avatar:TLAB fan too. You could have each member of the team needing to get over an overreliance of a particular approach (eg: Air-Bending's avoidance, Earth-Bending's head-on approach, etc.)._

I can't appreciate this chapter fully because I'm not super familiar with "Star Wars" (having watched the movies only once and not even all of them), but the sense of the team having fun with the role-play came through.

 _ **Nobi-Jin Wasabi : Wasabi No (be) Ginger .. switched around first and last name, used half of ginger so that it sounded like a toss-up between Obi-Wan and Qui-Jinn**_

 _ **Ahsago : combo between Gogo and Ahsoka (Anakin's Jedi padawan from the Clone Wars cartoon)**_

 _ **Princess Lemon : Another combo between Honey Lemon and Leia**_

 _ **Hiro Ren : Japanese pronunciation is Hee-lo, which sounds synonymous with Kylo. The fact they both have tempers was a happy accident. ;)**_

 _ **BX-2 : Baymax, made to sound like a droid. The 2 was because he's the second version.**_

 _ **Darth Zilla : adaptation from Darth Maul, one of the villains from first three episodes.**_

 **Hope the Star Wars comparison helped! And then… a new inspiration came to me from watching one of the first Voltron Legendary Defender episodes where they were doing team building exercises'. I came up with new ideas too, unique for this story (ie pairing with a partner that is almost like their opposite to balance each others styles out).**

 _EchidnaPower: Nice to see your work again. And yeah, Star Wars was awesome. Have to say though, I've NEVER seen a movie where people leaving the theater act like they've just seen some big secret. Like seriously, how long will we just "not talk about it" in public? How long do we have to wait?_

 **Hi! Well, I think now should be safe. It has been over 10 months since my last chapter, and they already have stuff out for the next movie! ;D**


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